1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a laser cleaning device for an electrode tab of a battery and, more particularly, to a laser cleaning device for removing an electrolyte solute stuck to an electrode tab during a process of injecting electrolyte, and a laser cleaning method using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A battery can be classified into a primary battery which cannot be charged and a rechargeable battery which can be charged. Among those, a low-capacity primary battery or rechargeable battery has been used as a power supply for portable small electronic devices, such as a mobile phone, a notebook computer and a camcorder, and a large-capacity rechargeable battery has bee used as a power supply for driving a motor, such as a hybrid car, an electric car, etc.
The battery basically includes: an electrode group including a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator; a case for receiving the electrode group together with an electrolyte solution; and a cap assembly for sealing the case. In the case of a cylindrical battery, the positive electrode may be electrically connected to a cap assembly and a negative electrode may be electrically connected to the case. To this end, a positive tab attached to the positive electrode may be fixed to an inner side of the cap assembly, and a negative tab attached to the negative electrode may be fixed to an inner side of the case.
Since a general cylindrical battery does not have an electrolyte solution injection hole, it is subjected to a process of inserting the electrode group into the case, injecting the electrolyte into the case, mounting the cap assembly on the case, and then sealing the case. The negative tab is fixed to the case before the electrolyte solution injection, the positive tab is fixed to the cap assembly after the electrolyte solution injection, and the cap assembly to which the positive tab is fixed is mounted on the case together with a gasket.
As described above, in the structure where the electrolyte solution is injected into the case and then the cap assembly is mounted, the electrolyte solution is stuck to the electrode tab, for example, the positive tab. In this case, since the conductive characteristics and assembling performance of the electrode tab are degraded, the electrolyte solution stuck to the electrode tab should be removed. However, since the electrode tab has a very small thickness of approximately 0.1 mm, it is required to pay careful attention to the handling of the electrode tab, and secondary foreign materials should not occur in the cleaning process.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of an understanding of the background of the described technology, and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art which is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.